how important was he to the united states and to afghanistan? >> reporter: he was hugely important to his brother, hamid karzai, the president, because really, he was his eyes and ears, his political fixer in the south of the country. so really, for president karzai, he was a very important stabilizing and controlling figure in the south of afghanistan in the kandahar region. certainly there had been a lot of rumors about him, rumors that he was involved in the drug trade, rumors that he has built military forces that have helped on cia-led operations inside afghanistan, and he has certainly never been able to disquiet those rumors and they have been around now for a number of years. but this is a man who it's very hard to find people in kandahar who will say a bad word against him. when i was there asking government officials about him just before christmas, no one would say a bad word about him, which to me at the time felt very much like an indication that he was the real strong man in kandahar and really, that's the person that he was. wheth